It’s not every day that people’s social security numbers get accidentally released. Well, actually it probably does happen every day, but usually UF isn’t involved.
Mistakes happen every now and then, we get it, but we have a hard time understanding how stuff like this seems to happen all the time. Sometimes the info is left on a lost or stolen laptop, other times, as in UF’s case, it’s due to computer error. But we’re sure most of the time the culprit is stupidity. Some of these stories would be kind of funny if they weren’t so common.
Couple this with all the reports of credit card skimmers in gas station pumps, including one of the Shell stations on Newberry Road, and no matter how you slice it information security is a bigger concern than ever.
We aren’t paranoid or anything. Whenever one of those hokey identity theft commercials comes on TV we can’t help but roll our eyes at what seems like a feeble attempt to get a few bucks out of old people who don’t understand how computers work. That said, we would prefer if there was a little more than a nine-digit number keeping people from getting a house loan in our name.
Maybe we should go back to signing things in blood and using wax seals. DNA is probably a little more unique than a social security number, right? Of course, making that switch would bring up a whole host of sanitation concerns when the university accidentally prints that on an address label.
